Mark Erwin

CFI, CFII, MEI, ATP, FAA Gold Seal, AGI, IGI

Hi, my name is Mark and I appreciate this opportunity to introduce myself. I’ve enjoyed instructing exclusively here at Advantage Aviation for several years now and have developed my own personal style of instruction which focuses on putting the “fun” into learning. While I do follow a training syllabus in order to make sure that all areas of aeronautical knowledge and flight training are covered, I consider it equally important that students get a good exposure to the real-world aspects of flying _ the type of “street knowledge” not found in text books, but gained only through experience.

I was a pilot for many years before deciding to become a flight instructor. At one point, I sat down and counted how many different instructors I had worked with over the years and came up with a total of fifteen (15). While each had his or her own strengths and weaknesses, I found that, in the end, it was the individual’s teaching style which shaped my feeling about them as being a good or bad instructor. I finally made the decision to become a CFI myself, convinced that I had what it took to be among the best out there, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since.

One thing I remember as a student was that there was so much going on during a typical flight lesson that I wasn’t quite able to absorb as much as I would have liked. This is why now, as an instructor, I offer to video record the entire flight lesson and provide it to the student on DVD at no charge. Not only has in-flight recording proven to be an invaluable training tool capable of significantly reducing overall training time (and expense), it also provides the flight student with an excellent way of sharing their training experience with family, friends, and co-workers. Another cutting-edge tool that I enjoy using is GPS track analysis – by taking the GPS data from the flight and overlaying it onto Google Earth, a 3-dimensional picture of the flight path is produced which can assist the student in better understanding concepts such as wind-drift correction, airspace boundaries, and airport traffic patterns, just to name a few. (To see examples of this in-flight recording and GPS track analysis, go to my website at www.mark1aviation.com).

Picking an instructor who is right for you is probably the most important decision you will make, as it will weigh heavily in determining the success you have in acheiving your goal. I look forward to being able to sit down and talk with you one-on-one, or perhaps spend a few minutes on the phone if that’s more convenient. Either way, I’d like to do whatever I can to help you get off to the best start possible.